Attribution: Parmino il Gioppino Samos Greece Key Dates The first, small-scale excavation of Heraion site was conducted by the doctor and botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort in 1702. In 1879, Paul Girard discovered the statue of Hera of Cheramyes; this is now in the Louvre. In 1902 and 1903, the sanctuary was excavated by the Archaeological Society of Athens. In 1910, it was further investigated on behalf of the Koenigliche Museen of Berlin but work was interrupted by World War I. Systematic excavations were begun in 1925 by the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, but interrupted by World War II.…
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Attribution: Schumata Mykines Greece Key Dates Most of the buildings were built between 1350 – 1200 BC, in the Bronze Age. The site was abandoned around 1100 BC. The Lion Gate was cleared in 1837. The site was first excavated in 1874. Subsequent digs were carried out between 1884 and 1957. The Mycenae Comittee was created in 1999. Key People Homer was inspired by the site to record several of his epics. Pausanias mapped the area in the second century. K. Pittakis cleared the Lion Gate in 1841. Heinrich Shliemann began the first excavation of the site in 1876. The…
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Egypt hasn’t always been controlled from Cairo – in fact the city only took on its capital city mantle in 969 AD. The ancient Egyptian empire went through over a dozen capital cities in its history, the most notable being Memphis, Thebes, Amarna and Alexandria. But how did power shift between these bustling ancient hubs? And what was life like as a resident of an ancient Egyptian capital? A Divided Land Before the empire was united in 3118 BC, it consisted of two separate kingdoms: Upper and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt consisted of the valley regions of the south, taking…
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Attribution: Peter Mattock Donore Ireland Key Dates Newgrange was built between 3300 and 2900 BC, and was a focus of ceremonial activity throughout the Neolithic period. New monuments were progressively added to the site – timber circles were built and a free-standing circle of stones was erected to circle the mound. It wasn’t until the 17th century that Newgrange was discovered. Excavation and restoration took place 1962-1975 under the supervision of the University of Cork Archaeology Department’s Professor Michael J O’Kelly, the first person to witness the winter solstice from within the mound. During the excavation, the remains of five…
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In Need of a Protection Racket? Ostia Antica is like any other town – it has streets, shops, houses. Even a theatre and a fire station. The crucial difference is that no one has lived here for almost two millennia. Many of the buildings have lost their roofs, and protection from the elements is minimal – which means there is little to halt the gradual process of dilapidation that has been going on in Ostia for many centuries. Two-thousand-year old mosaics are exposed to the elements while the ruins of ancient shops and cellars are at risk of flooding. It’s…
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Saqqara, located 40km south of Cairo, was a vast, 6km-long necropolis for the ancient capital of Memphis during the 1st and 2nd dynasties. It is most famously recognised for its step pyramid, built for the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh Djoser (2635 – 2610 BC) – but houses thousands of ancient burial sites, with many more submerged beneath the unerring depths of the desert. It stands as not only a memoriam to the time in which it was developed, but also as a yardstick against which all future Egyptian funerary ceremony would be placed. The City of the Dead Saqqara was originally…
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The pyramids of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs have long stood proud as some of the world’s greatest architectural achievements. The heralded leaders to whom they were devoted are known throughout the world, yet the stories of the men who built them have remained hidden until recent times. Who were these people, how did they construct these massive mausoleums – and why did they devote their lives to such a breathtaking task? Modern archaeology and ancient testament may hold the key to these questions. Who Were They? Age-old storytelling, myth and the mysticism of the structures themselves, has led many in…
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Challenging the University of Virginia’s Ancient Rome in 3D, the UCLA’s Digital Karnak is a three-dimensional virtual-reality model that runs in real time and allows users to navigate 2,000 years of history at the ancient Egyptian religious site Karnak, one of the largest temple complexes ever constructed. Today, the Karnak site — where generations of pharaohs constructed temples, obelisks, sphinxes and other sacred structures beginning in the 20th century B.C. — is a popular tourist destination near modern-day Luxor. Developed by UCLA’s Experiential Technologies Center, the Digital Karnak model and a host of additional digital resources are now available for…
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Back in 2000, which was by no means the very start of the ‘Stonehenge Saga‘, the Journal of Architectural Conservation published an article by Elizabeth Young and Wayland Kennet outlining the “national disgrace” that constitutes facilities at Stonehenge. The existing visitor centre was slated for its “grubby car park, tiny shop and loos”, and the authors complained that the stones themselves were fenced off. Additionally, attempts to agree on a plan to upgrade facilities had failed completely, and the situation had escalated into a “smouldering dispute that might, without care, burst into acrimonious flames”. Since the first proposals, in 1991,…
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Modern Discovery of an Ancient Army The enigmatic terracotta warriors were unearthed alongside their emperor in Xi’an, in the central province of Shaanxi, in 1974. They were found accidentally when peasants digging a well broke into a pit containing 6000 life-size terracotta figures. Further excavations revealed the terracotta army – footsoldiers, archers, cavalrymen and officers of all ranks. Current estimates of the three pits containing the Terracotta Army are over 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses with many still buried in the pits. Discoveries in other pits have continued at the site with horse bones…